Charities are rated based on these independent metrics:

• 15% for fundraising costs and
• 5% for administrative overhead within a reasonable range of 5%-35%
   

In addition, beginning in 2017, Charity Intelligence's star ratings are also affected by our Impact Rating as outlined below.

Results Reporting (40% of Star Rating)
Charities are rated based on the public reporting of their activities, outputs and outcomes.  This score does not assess the strength of the charity’s strategy, the quality of its activities, the level of its outputs or the impressiveness of its outcomes; rather, it grades if enough information is disclosed such that any reader could make those assessments.  The score is a letter grade based on the relative scoring of the charity compared to all other Canadian charities analyzed.  Please click to read more information on Results Reporting.

Charity Intelligence assigns letter grades according to the following distribution:

Financial Transparency (20% of Star Rating)

Charities are assessed a rating based on their transparency in providing complete audited financial statements, including the financial notes and accounting policies, to the public.  If the most recent statements are not available within 9 months of the charity's year-end, the transparency score is reduced by 1.

Program Cost Coverage (20% of Star Rating)

Program cost coverage is a financial ratio tool for assessing a charity’s need for funding.  It compares funding reserves (liquid assets of cash, cash equivalents and investment securities, less interest-bearing liabilities) relative to program costs.  The program cost coverage ratio is calculated by dividing the year-end funding reserves (excluding donor-endowed funds) by the program costs for the most recent year less 5% of donor-endowed funds (or the disbursement rate disclosed by the charity), expressed as a percentage.

Charities receive full rating for their need for funding if their program cost coverage ratio is below 300%, meaning that they have less than 3 years’ worth of funds available to fund program costs. Charities with program cost coverage over 500% receive no points for this metric.

Fundraising Costs (15% of Star Rating)

Ci presents all fundraising costs gross of fundraising expenses.  Lotteries and business expenses are not included in fundraising ratios.  Total fundraising costs are presented as a percent of donations plus special events revenue. Charities receive top points for fundraising costs below 15%.  Charities with fundraising ratios above the initial CRA cut-off of 35% receive no points for this metric.

Administrative Costs (5% of Star Rating)

The administrative cost ratio is calculated by taking the charity’s total administration costs divided by its total revenues less investment income. Charities require a basic level of administrative costs to operate effectively.  If these costs are not adequate, the charity risks being less effective.  Given this, charities with administrative cost ratios less than 2% lose 1 out of 5 available points for this metric.  Charities with administrative cost ratios between 2% and 12.5% (comprising roughly 2/3 of all charities examined by Ci) receive full points for this metric.  Charities with administrative costs above 22.5% receive no points for this metric.

Calculation of Star Ratings

Each of the above metrics is weighted to determine the overall charity score.  These final scores are assigned star ratings based on roughly 15% of charities being 4-Star charities, 20% being 3-Star, 40% being 2-Star, 20% being 1-Star, and 5% being 0-Star charities.  In order to qualify for 3- or 4-Star ratings, charities must also pass the following hurdles:

The current distribution of star ratings for all charities rated by Charity Intelligence is a bell curve with the majority at 2 stars  - most charities are rated average.  

Since launching charity ratings in October 2014, charities have improved financial disclosure (posting audited financial statements on their websites) and have added more information on results in reports to donors. Grades on donor reporting have increased 14%. Charity Intelligence wants to ensure 4-Star ratings have meaning and go to the 15%-20% of charities with the highest overall score. Therefore, in September 2017, we re-balanced our ratings towards our target distribution.

Impact Rating

To assess impact, Charity Intelligence uses what is known as Social Return on Investment (SROI), which is a ratio that measures the amount of value created per dollar donated. Our Impact Rating assesses charities based on both their demonstrated impact as well as the quality of the data available to assess impact. Additional details on our Impact Ratings can be found here.

Ratings fall into 4 categories based on the combination of demonstrated impact and data quality: High, Good, Fair & Low impact.

Impact ratings affect overall star ratings based on the following:

If Impact is High, overall star rating is increased by 1 star (4-star charities stay at 4 stars).

If Impact is Low, overall star rating is decreased by 1 star (0-star charities stay at 0 stars).